Jo Verrent is a woman of substance. After being refused entry to drama school because she was deaf, she has since fought back to prove that having a disability is not a barrier to success. Recently awarded the Cosmopolitan Magazine Women of Achievement Award, the mother-of-two tells how that setback at the age of 18 led to bigger and better things.

BEING DEAF has certain advantages for Jo Verrent. For one thing, she can't hear her husband snoring at night. And for another, when she's in the middle of an argument, she says she can always turn her hearing aids off!

But although nowadays Jo laughs about her disability and openly talks about its effect on her life, as a teenager it did much to shatter the dreams and ambitions she'd held since childhood.

All young Jo really wanted to do was to act and she'd made carefully laid plans to go to drama school once she'd finished her A-levels.

But things started to go wrong when, at the age of 11, Jo inexplicably and suddenly lost her hearing.

Determined to fight her disability, she underwent speech therapy and elocution lessons so she could speak clearly. She gradually taught herself how to lip read and at the age of 13, she was fitted with her first hearing aid.

Through hard work and sheer determination, Jo really felt she was conquering her disability. Or so she thought.

Says 33-year-old Jo, who lives in Harden: "I wanted to be an actress and I really wanted to go to drama school after I'd done my A levels.

"But my application was turned down because I was deaf.

"I couldn't believe it. I was incredibly irritated that I was being prevented from doing something because of someone else's perception of what I couldn't do.

"Someone else was deciding on my behalf on what I thought was bad information and I didn't get a choice in the matter."

Refusing to be deterred, Jo settled on a drama, dance and creative writing degree, followed by a postgraduate course in Theatre of the Deaf at Reading University. "The course followed ways historically that deaf people have used theatre as a communication medium, such as sign language theatre," says Jo.

"It totally added a new perspective for me. Having studied on a mainstream drama course, a lot of that wasn't relevant for me, whereas the postgraduate course was.

"When I finished the course, I began to write plays in both sign language and English. The course had taught me that there was a new, emerging area of theatre and that I wanted to contribute to it."

Supplementing her income from writing by working as a performer, Jo eventually decided to give up writing plays with the birth of her first child, Emma, now eight.

It was at this point that Jo became involved in co-ordinating arts projects for the disabled at her new base in Bedford. And after a short stint there, she found herself as a director at East Midlands Shape, a charity specialising in arts projects for the disabled.

"They took a risk taking me on," admits Jo. "I'm only the second person they've employed as a director who's disabled, and I'm relatively young too.

"But I'm confident their risk has paid off. During the five years I've worked there, the organisation's grown from four members of staff to 13.

"It's been very worthwhile working here and an enormous personal challenge. Hopefully I've paved the way for other people like me to carry on where I've left off."

Now mum-of-two Jo has set herself another challenge - she's decided to leave Shape and set up her own business working from her home in Harden.

"I'm setting up my own company called ADA - Arts Disabled Access," explains Jo. "I'll be looking at carrying out access audits and disability training. I'm now busy co-ordinating the next residential event for the National Arts and Mental Health Forum in November."

A loving mum, an award-winning career, it would seem that Jo has it all.

And, she says, it's all due to the setback she had when she was 18 when she was refused entry to drama school. "If I hadn't have had that initial feeling of being rejected I wouldn't have tried so hard," says Jo.

"I knew I had to be very tenacious and determined to get that far.

"A number of other people wouldn't have been able to do it because of the barriers put in their way - for everyone who succeeds, there must have been ten or 15 people who could have made it if it weren't for the obstacles in their way.

"Being a disabled person has some positive advantages - it's given me membership of a different, vibrant culture.

"We experience different things and have a different way of looking at the world.

"I don't want to change who I am, I'm very happy. I don't mind having operations to stop my hearing getting worse, but if I suddenly had perfect hearing, I don't think I'd know who I was any more.

"Getting the Cosmopolitan award was such a boost - it just shows what barriers can be broken down and how it's always worth trying."

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